Your Guide to Using Stormboard in the Classroom
The education of future generations is one of the most important tasks we have, and utilizing collaborative technology in the classroom is a great way to get students working together and using their creativity to brainstorm ideas and solve problems.
Getting kids, tweens, and teens familiar with digital collaboration is essential, as technology will play a large part in their higher education and future careers.
Stormboard is doing its part to make it easier to implement collaboration software in schools by offering an Education Plan. And, to make it even simpler to use Stormboard with students, the education plan is FREE until the end of 2019!
If you are an educator at an accredited K-12 school, have a valid school email address, and will be using Stormboard directly with students, you will be able to qualify for the FREE Education Plan.
What are the features of Stormboard’s Education Plan?
The Stormboard Education plan has all of the same features as the Personal Plan, along with some added extras!
When signed up for the plan, you will be able to have unlimited users in your Storms (so all of your students can work together!), 1 GB of storage, the full ability to upload and create documents in your Storms (what we call your digital workspace), extra reporting options, customizable headings on template sections, section resizing, and more.
Templates for students and teachers
Stormboard has hundreds of templates that can be used to simplify the work process. For educators, we offer dedicated education-based templates to get your students engaged in their learning through a digital workspace.
Our template gallery, which can be found here (or can be browsed when you create a new storm), features an education section tab under ‘Job Types’ that includes all of our education-based templates (see image below).
There are currently twelve Education templates to choose from, but you can also create your own customized template using one of our blank templates if you have a specific process that you use in your classroom.
5 Paragraph Essay Outline
The 5 Paragraph Essay Outline is a template helps you teach your students how to create a layout for their project or paper. The template is pre-set up with five sections — Introduction, Thesis, Body Paragraph 1, Body Paragraph 2, Body Paragraph 3, and Conclusion.
Character Map
A template created specifically for educators, the Character Map helps teachers and students create complex and authentic characters by creating character profiles for them in their writing, or, will help them analyze characters that already exist in books they are reading.
Compare and Contrast
The Compare and Contrast Template is perfect for educators and their students who are outlining ideas for different kinds of comparison essays. The different sections help you to evaluate the similarities and differences between two distinct subjects.
Conflict Map
The Conflict Map helps teachers and students identify and examine the critical plot element, or conflict, in the story that they are reading.
Empathy Map
A template for students to gain an understanding of the way characters think and feel, and how that often correlates with their actions.
KWL
The KWL Template is a teaching tool that helps to organize thoughts and ideas before, after, and during a lesson. This template is useful for both group and independent learning and is ideal for visual, young, and ESL students. KWL represents Know, What, and Learn
KWHLAQ
The KWHLAQ Template is an extended version of the KWL Template and is a teaching tool that helps to organize thoughts and ideas before, after, and during a lesson. This template is useful for both group and independent learning and is ideal for visual, young, and ESL students. KWHLAQ stands for: Know, What, How, Learn, Apply, and Questions.
RAFT Writing Template
The RAFT Writing Template is a writing strategy that helps students to understand what the role of a writer is, the audience that they will address, the format that they will be writing in, and the topic that they will be covering. The template is divided into five sections — Role, Audience, Format, Topic, and Writing.
Reading and Analyzing Non-Fiction
The Reading and Analyzing Non-Fiction Template walks students through the process of understanding what it is that they have read and how to draw conclusions from it.
Persona Template
The template is divided into three sections: Picture and Name, Details, and Goal. It can be used for both marketing and education purposes.
SEED Discussion
The Seed Discussion Template is used to teach students how to engage in discussions about assigned readings.
Word Wall
A Word Wall is an ongoing, organized collection of words that are displayed to provide a visual reference for students throughout a unit of study or term.
How to Sign up for Stormboard’s Education Plan
Signing up is easy!
Click here for our Educator Pricing page, select the plan, and then enter your email address, school name, and whether you are a teacher or a student in the next screen.
When your plan is set up and ready to go, you will need to add students to your Storms so they can collaborate with you on their own devices. To do this, go into any Storm, and on the bottom menu bar click on ‘Share’.You can share via URL, by sending the ID and Key of the Storm, or by entering the email addresses of the students you wish to share it with.
If you have signed up for one of our other plans already, there is no need to cancel your account, you just need to switch your account to the Education Plan. Note that Education Plans do not require a credit card!
If you need assistance switching your account over, contact us and we will be able to help you make the transfer.
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